Interested in growing my own beer garden

[mashpaddled]

Was wondering what would be the easiest beer to grow my own ingredients for and to brew? Would wheat beer be the one?

Wheat and corn are pretty easy to grow in a wide range of climates. Barley and oats benefit from a cooler climate but you're probably fine in Peoria to grow. You can brew a 100% wheat beer but if you can grow barley in your area it might be easier to just grow barley.

The issue is that you need a fair amount of space to grow barley just to brew a few batches. It's not a quick growing grass, so you need to plan on growing out half a year or more for a single crop. Presumably you'll just want to buy seed once and then use some of the prior harvest to seed the next, so account for that additional space in your garden. Same is true for wheat.

If you like corn as an adjunct in your beers, it's not hard to grow and you can get a little more volume out of the same space. I grow a little bit of heirloom corn for fun in my garden. It's low maintenance to grow and doesn't require as much work to harvest as wheat or barley. Squirrels love it so I always lose a notable portion of the harvest to the extremely aggressive squirrels in the neighborhood.

 

[cmac62]

Was wondering what would be the easiest beer to grow my own ingredients for and to brew? Would wheat beer be the one?

I have no idea what kind of grain is easiest to grow, but as long as you can get unmalted I'd go with barley first. Good luck.

 

[InspectorJon]

Was wondering what would be the easiest beer to grow my own ingredients for and to brew? Would wheat beer be the one?

The vast majority of grain used to make beer is barley, there’s probably a reason for that.

 

[Rish]

You might try contacting your county extension office and talk with someone there about which grains grow best in your area and how to grow them. Good luck!

 

[Chris N]

Thank you very much, mashpaddled,cmac62,inspectorjon,and rish!

I think I can grow barley ok in my area. My local seed store gets in a 6 row called robust barley. I grow hay for the horses. This year was my first year basically growing my own tobacco. It really turned out well for most the part. Looking forward to growing other varieties next year.

I love wheat and would like to grow it but if it's easier, get more production, and tastes just as good using/growing corn then I'll be happy to grow that instead. I am not sure I have ever tried beer made with corn. I like lagers - Budweiser etc. Miller High Life and Busch is ok. My thoughts are better to have beer then no beer lol. Which beers should I try to see if I like corn made beers? Corn and Soy Beans are the main crops here in Illinois. There are some wheat fields as well. So I know I will have no problems growing Corn and Wheat. There is also sweet corns as well if they would work better in the beer.

 

[Rish]

You may have seen this. It seems that brewing with corn you grow will require use of a grain with enough diastatic power or adding enzymes to convert starches.

https://byo.com/article/brewing-with-corn/

 

[Cider Wraith]

What is the OP's primary objective? Does he want a totally home produced beer, or a totally home produced alcoholic beverage? If the former, historic posts have well addressed, if the latter, grow some black berries or blue berries and make a cider. Who, me biased?

 

[Chris N]

Thank you very much, Rish and Cider Wraith! I will for sure check it out. Yeah, I want a home produced beer. From remembering earlier discussions I would need a lot of wheat and it would be a good amount of work to harvest the wheat. So was wondering what the easiest beer is to brew and the easiest crop to grow, harvest and not need so much of that I could use in the beer. I could drink ciders if need be but I prefer beer.

 

[cmac62]

I'm no farmer and may be totally wrong, but since barley does not need to be dehusked (threshed) it seems like it would be the easier to harvest and prepare. Then you need to learn malting and I know there are probably tons of threads on that. Good luck and keep this thread updated.

 

[Broothru]

View attachment 779491

Now see? ^^THIS^^ is what differentiates a 'biergarten' from a true 'beer garden'. I just want to know where you find the seeds.

 

[grampamark]

I'm no farmer and may be totally wrong, but since barley does not need to be dehusked (threshed) it seems like it would be the easier to harvest and prepare. Then you need to learn malting and I know there are probably tons of threads on that. Good luck and keep this thread updated.

Threshing has nothing to do with the husks. Threshing is the process of separating the kernels from the straw, chaff, leaves, dead grasshoppers, etc., so that only the whole grain remains. Malting barley is a bit more challenging to thresh than wheat, oats, rye, and other cereals, because of the need to preserve the husks. Grain farmers who try to grow malting barley for the first time are often surprised to find that their harvest won’t be acceptable for malting because, in the course of trying to get the grain as clean as possible, they skinned the husks badly enough that the maltsters don’t want it. Properly threshed malting barley is ugly to look at because, to avoid damaging the husks, a bit of the “unmillable material”, which buyers of wheat and other cereals don’t want, is deliberately left with the seed.

 

[InspectorJon]

to avoid damaging the husks, a bit of the “unmillable material”, which buyers of wheat and other cereals don’t want, is deliberately left with the seed.

So that’s why I see some “other stuff” floating in the mash kettle sometimes.

 

[cmac62]

Threshing has nothing to do with the husks. Threshing is the process of separating the kernels from the straw, chaff, leaves, dead grasshoppers, etc., so that only the whole grain remains. Malting barley is a bit more challenging to thresh than wheat, oats, rye, and other cereals, because of the need to preserve the husks. Grain farmers who try to grow malting barley for the first time are often surprised to find that their harvest won’t be acceptable for malting because, in the course of trying to get the grain as clean as possible, they skinned the husks badly enough that the maltsters don’t want it. Properly threshed malting barley is ugly to look at because, to avoid damaging the husks, a bit of the “unmillable material”, which buyers of wheat and other cereals don’t want, is deliberately left with the seed.

Thanks Gmpamark. I figured you or one of the other farmers out there would chime in.

 

[bracconiere]

So that’s why I see some “other stuff” floating in the mash kettle sometimes.

probably the acrospires...

 

[Chris N]

Thank you very much, cmac62 and grampamark! I have been talking with my local small farms and local foods educator. He has mentioned that barley is easily grown in the area so that builds my confidence in doing this. I need to find an all grain brew kit and all grain equipment to practice. I will probably have to order the brew kit online. My local store only has extract kits. Which are fun and easy but not really helping me if I want to make my own beer from scratch.
I found some articles on malting but would like to learn more about the process like threshing that grampamark has shared. Thank you very much for sharing!
I will for sure do my best to keep this thread updated. Will probably try to get practice in on an all grain brew kit first. Just brewed a dunkelwiezen extract kit on Sunday.

 

[cmac62]

If you have a big pot you can start all grain with Brew in a Bag (BIAB). You just need a paint strainer bag to put the grain in. There are tons of info on both malting and BIAB process here. The Threshing part sounds like you just need to harvest and clean as best you can and then do the malting. Anyway, good luck.

Edit: @bracconiere may be a great resource for the malting part. He does his own from feed barley and other stuff.

 

[Chris N]

Sounds great, thank you very much, cmac62! I have never heard of BIAB before but I am definitely interested in that method. I have a paint strainer. Had to get a bunch of them for collecting tobacco seeds. I will for sure do my best on researching and practice. Looking forward also to grow my own ingredients.